THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: Living By Faith In God

CXLI. Overcoming The Influence Of Evil Leaders

(Psalm 141:1-10)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Today, we face the challenge of trying to overcome the bad influence of sinful leaders:

(1) We face it in our federal government: “(T)he New York Times reported in 2010” that Connecticut U. S. Senator Richard “Blumenthal . . . at a ceremony in Norwalk in 2008 honoring veterans and senior citizens who sent presents to soldiers overseas . . . said, ‘We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam, and you exemplify it. Whatever we think about the war, whatever we call it – Afghanistan or Iraq – we owe our military men and women unconditional support.’ There was one problem: Mr. Blumenthal . . . never served in Vietnam,’ the Times said at the time. ‘He obtained at least five military deferments from 1965 to 1970 and took repeated steps that enabled him to avoid going to war, according to records.’” (Peter Yankowski and Jordan Nathaniel Fenster, “Trump calls for Blumenthal probe,” Republican-American, October 9, 2025, p. A1)

Then, in the October 7, 2025 “Senate hearing” when Senator “Blumenthal pressed (Attorney General) . . . Pam Bondi, asking her what conversations she’d had with Trump about the indictment of (former FBI Director James) Comey . . . (Bondi said,) ‘Senator Blumenthal, I cannot believe that you would accuse me of impropriety when you lied about your military service . . . You lied, you admitted you lied to be elected a U. S. senator.” (Ibid.)

We teach that we should tell the truth, but the example of a U. S. Senator who represents our state in Congress provides the opposite example of flagrant lying, creating a negative influence for us citizens at our state level!

(2) We face it in academia: Jay Bergman, Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University for the last 35 years, in his op-ed, “Universities’ left-wing bias can’t be corrected from within” (op. cit., October 8, 2025, p. A6), reported, “(M)any faculty abuse their power over students by reserving class time otherwise spent on the subject they are contractually required to teach by articulating and imposing a left-wing orthodoxy on students who have neither the autonomy nor the intellectual wherewithal to challenge . . . CCSU students have told me in confidence and in whispered tones how much they resent their professors selfishly shoving their politics down their throats – on illegal immigration, President Trump, non-existent Israeli genocide in Gaza, ‘systematic racism,’ and so on.”

We teach the need for us to fulfill our contractual duties in the workplace and to heed the Biblical truth to earn our own livelihoods, but many university professors violate their contractual duties to spread Marxist ideology that promotes stealing from the “haves” to give to the “have nots,” creating a negative influence for us at the local level!

(3) We face it in evangelical circles: Postmodernism that influences many evangelical leaders today “holds . . . (that) something is true ‘if it works for you’” (Brannon Howse, Religious Trojan Horse, 2012, p. 22). In other words, what is allegedly true in Scripture for some people is debatable for others so that no one can be sure that he knows the Bible’s truths on anything that it mentions! This view leads to the remark we hear from believers who come from some churches that we should agree on the “truth” of the Gospel but agree to disagree on all of the rest of the Bible out of respect for different interpretations – that we would be sinfully proud to claim we know the true interpretation! (The question we would then ask them is this: Is one sinfully proud if he believes he knows what the true Gospel is?!)

We claim that Scripture is true, but this postmodern-laced view makes using the Bible a futile exercise since it asserts that no one can be sure that he knows the Bible’s truths! Predictably, many believers who hold this view fail to know and apply Biblical truths on spiritual living, leaving them no choice but to live by their wretched sin natures! They feel insecure and/or become overbearing as they try to offset their insecurity, lacking the fruit of the Holy Spirit!

Need: So we ask, “How does God direct that we handle the influence of evil leaders?”

I. In Psalm 141, David faced influential leaders who tried to lure him to sin:

A. The “men that work iniquity” in verse 4 KJV translates the Hebrew word ‘ish, what referred to a nobleman (Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 1097; Robert B. Girdlestone, Synonyms of the Old Testament, 1973, p. 48-52).

B. David’s request to God was that He might guard his mouth from saying wrong words (Psalm 141:3).

C. Also, the word rendered “thing” (v. 4a KJV) is the Hebrew noun dabar, what here means “word” (Kittel, loc. cit.; B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 182-184), so David’s request in verse 3 that God guard his mouth from saying wrong words is continued in verse 4 to emphasize his petition that was stated in verse 3.

D. In summary, then, David faced influential noblemen or leaders in society who tried to lure him to sin.

II. To handle his temptation, David asked God to guard his mouth from sinning with his words, v. 1-4a:

A. Intent on making his request heard, David prefaced his petition by asking God to hear his call for help, to treat his prayer as an important offering of incense before the Lord at the tabernacle evening sacrifice, Psa. 141:1-2.

B. David then asked that God set a guard over his mouth to avoid verbally sinning, Psalm 141:3-4a.

III. However, beyond asking the Lord to guard his speech, David asked that God keep him from fellowshipping with evil influential leaders in every realm of his life, Psalm 141:4b,c.

IV. David also asked that God might let a righteous man strike him in rebuke to keep him from sinning, that such a rebuke would be a kindness that David would not refuse, Psalm 141:5a.

V. He also asked that the Lord might punish the evil leaders (Psalm 141:5b-6a), that such men might learn that David’s words were well spoken though they had been punished for sin (Psalm 141:6b-7)

VI. David kept his eyes fixed on the Lord, taking refuge in Him so that he would not be punished by the death that the evil leaders would face for their sins of the tongue and their results, Psalm 141:8.

VII. He again asked God to keep him from the snares and traps other evil leaders had set for him to sin, and that God would led the wicked leaders fall into their own nets while David safely escaped, v. 9-10.

Lesson: David overcame the lure of influential leaders to sin with his words by asking God to protect his speech from sinning and to keep him separate from the deeds and fellowship of such evil leaders.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. (2) If we face the temptation to follow the example of influential leaders in sinning, may we ask God to protect our mouths from saying sinful words and to avoid the deeds and even the fellowship of such evil, influential leaders.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message and/or provide additional guidance . . .)

Scripture provides added directives to equip us to handle the issues of concern mentioned in our introduction:

(1) On the lie by Connecticut U. S. Senator Richard Blumenthal about his claim to have been in Vietnam during the Vietnam War that he might advance his political career, (a) Revelation 21:8 KJV states that among those who will spend eternity in the lake of fire will be “all liars.” (b) Without intending to pass eternal judgment on any one individual, we know from this verse that lying is an abomination to God. So, regardless who in any realm of leadership lies, we must rely on God to avoid heeding their bad example and speak the truth in love, Ephesians 4:15a!

(2) On CCSU veteran Professor Jay Bergman’s report that many leftist university professors abuse their power over students by reserving class time to promote their political views when they are under contractual obligation to teach other subjects, and that they do so to students who don’t have the autonomy or intellectual wherewithal to rebut their assertions, (a) 1 John 4:1, 4 teaches that though many false prophets are gone out into the world, the Holy Spirit Who indwells us is greater than Satan who is in the world! As we rely on the Holy Spirit by faith (Galatians 5:16; 2:20), we can discern Satan’s errors (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:12-15). (b) Also, Scripture provides us the insight we need for every good work of discernment (2 Timothy 3:13-17), so we merely need to keep reading God’s Word for insight!

(3) On the claim by some evangelical leaders that all we need to agree on with fellow Christians is the truth of the Gospel and to agree to disagree on everything else as being the Bible’s knowable truth, (a) Paul taught the need for pastors and teachers to minister that other believers might no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, Ephesians 4:11-14. (b) The reason why we have noticed over the years that people who hold to the belief that we can agree to disagree on everything but the Gospel are typically insecure and/or domineering is that they hold to errant or conflicting spiritual ideas that leave them unsettled or functioning in the sin nature! The lack of being taught “all the counsel of God” that Paul taught (Acts 20:27) has led to such problems. (c) In the Great Commission at Matthew 28:20, Jesus told us to teach others “to observe all things whatsoever” He “commanded” us, and those things would include His apostles’ words in the New Testament as well as the Old Testament, 2 Timothy 4:1-2. (d) We also know from Matthew 5:18 that Christ exampled how we are to interpret Scripture – in a consistently literal way, even with prophecy! That happens to lead to the dispensational, premillennial, pretribulational view of Scripture! Thus, we are obliged by the Lord to edify one another in the faith that we might spiritually mature in Christ. (e) Finally, Jesus in John 8:32 KJV said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Discerning the Bible’s truth is not hard for godly believers (1 Corinthians 2:12-15), and Christ assured us that we have and we will know His truth!

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God’s gift of eternal life. May we then pray for God’s protection from the lure to follow influential leaders to sin and to avoid their deeds and fellowship as we rely on the Holy Spirit to obey the Word of God.